In Timbuktu rubbish collector and general ‘white van’ man Alsion depends on his donkeys for his livelihood.
Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian

In November residents of Naberera village in Tanzania made a grisly discovery. Their donkeys, animals they rely on for essential tasks, had been slaughtered, skinned and left in the bush. Overnight the villagers were left with no way to take their children to school or carry water, except on their own backs.

Why are donkeys being stolen and killed in this horrible way? To fuel demand for a range of goods from snacks to beauty products containing traditional Chinese medicine ejiao, as a report by my organisation, the Donkey Sanctuary, explains.

Ejiao is formed from gelatin extracted from the hide and mixed with herbs and other ingredients. It is added to products which are then claimed to offer a variety of health benefits including anti-ageing properties, an increase in libido and reduction in reproductive organ disease in women.

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Like rhino horn and tiger parts, ejiao has historical roots that can be traced back many centuries. Also in parallel to other traditional Chinese medicine, it is the rapid expansion of China’s cash-rich middle classes that has fuelled its popularity.

China doesn’t have enough donkeys to meet demand, which is why the export of donkey skin to China is being reported in all areas of the globe with significant donkey populations – from Colombia, where local police in Sucre region started a campaign called Guard your donkey, to Pakistan, which recently banned the export of skins because of concerns over consumption of donkey meat.

The continent with one of the most worrying markets targeted for donkey skins is Africa, where there appears to be both a government-led slaughterhouse process and small-scale bush killings frequently involving theft. In Tanzania, markets have sprung up across the country for middle men to sell donkeys on to a Chinese-run abattoir. In Egypt a request was recently made to export 10,000 live donkeys to China, which the government did not approve.

For many people in poorer parts of the world, losing a donkey is like losing a car, said Annemarie van Zijl, the founder of the Eseltjiesrus Donkey Sanctuary in South Africa. “If you wake up in the morning and your car has been stolen plus all the cars around you have been stolen, it all comes to a standstill”.

Demand for donkey skin also leads to huge shortfalls in donkey populations, which in turn pushes up the price of donkeys. This makes them all but unaffordable to millions of the world’s poorest people who rely on them for their livelihoods.

Our report, Under the Skin reveals the scale of the trade. As well as concern over the welfare of the donkeys, the future of the people who rely on them is also in jeopardy. Bereft of their beasts of burden, the “donkey work” inevitably falls on women and children, which doesn’t bode well for efforts to improve gender equality or access to education in poor communities.

Demand for donkey skins is also pushing up prices, which could have a devastating impact on the people who rely on them. Unable to afford new donkeys, and largely cut off from trade and supplies, entire communities could be thrown back to subsistence living.

However, at The Donkey Sanctuary we are helping to minimise the impact that the trade in donkey skins has on communities. Through our local partners in Tanzania we are training people in donkey security and building fenced compounds to keep the animals safe at night. We are also working with communities to improve the economic status of donkeys through better welfare and discourage the sale of donkeys for skin for short-term profit.

But more needs to be done. We would like to see a halt to the trade until the huge impact on both donkeys and the people who rely on them has been assessed.There is a large and growing body of evidence that shows the trade is neither humane nor sustainable. Most consumers will have no idea that buying ejiao products can have such a devastating impact on people across the world. We hope that increased media coverage will begin to enlighten them and allow them to make an informed choice.

Donkey populations cannot continue to be decimated and communities must not be deprived of one of their only means of survival. Action must now be taken to curb this demand, in the interest of both animal and human welfare.